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Leto: Music needs transparency

Jared Leto thinks the music industry needs to have a 'more transparent system'.

The 42-year-old star's band 30 Seconds to Mars was infamously embroiled in a $30 million lawsuit their former record company EMI launched against them years ago, and the saga was captured in Jared's 2012 documentary, Artifact.

On April 26 the feature will make its US television debut on VH1 and Palladia networks, and Jared thinks this broadcast could potentially impact the way Hollywood does business.

'I hope that artists and audiences watch this film and get a greater understanding of how things work in the music industry, because understanding is the beginning of change,' he is quoted as saying by Variety in a statement.

'Inevitably, we're all moving toward what I hope is a more transparent system.'

When 30 Seconds to Mars attempted to sign with a new label six years ago, EMI accused the band of not delivering the amount of albums they were contracted for.

Jared and his bandmates claimed their EMI contract, which was signed in 1999, was null and void due to a Californian law that states agreements expire after seven years.

Although the band and the record label eventually settled the conflict in 2009, Jared believes the situation speaks to larger issues.

'I think it's a look at the record industry, the death of one era, the beginning of another. It examines art and commerce and technology,' he told Crave Online previously.

'You see a group of artists that are in the middle of a creative process but also fighting a giant corporation. There's a bit of a David and Goliath story there as well.'